Living Vegan For Dummies - Alexandra Jamieson [105]
Join a CSA: A Community Supportive Agriculture program, or CSA, is a system where small farmers offer seasonal shares in their crops. Individuals and families can pay in advance for a weekly box of fresh, seasonal food to be delivered to a local drop-off point. This system encourages the shareholder (that would be you) to eat a more diverse selection of produce because you already have a box of nice food that you may not normally purchase. Many CSAs also provide recipes that use their seasonal produce.
Shake it up: Smoothie chains, which are everywhere these days, offer the opportunity to get several servings of fruit and veggies into your menu plan. Bring a bunch of vegan smoothies to your next meeting or group gathering to share the goodness with co-workers and friends.
Smoothie shops often have soy yogurt and soymilk or rice milk, so be sure to ask if you don’t see what you’re looking for on the menu. If you can’t find a yogurt or nondairy milk for your smoothie, ask for fruit, juice, nuts, or seeds to be blended together. Be sure to ask for unsweetened fruit. Employees at these establishments are familiar with personalized blends and will be accommodating if asked nicely.
Get juicy: Get a juicer or high-quality blender and make a fresh juice with several fruits and veggies daily. You can make juices with countless combinations; in fact, entire books are dedicated to juice recipes that focus on taste themes and specific health concerns.
Be like the French and shop often: It’s normal in many European cultures for families to shop every two or three days for fresh produce. Shopping this often may be easier in Paris or Milan where every neighborhood has a fresh street market several times a week, but you can still make a quick trip into the grocery store for salad greens and fruit to ensure healthy snacking.
Don’t turn a cold shoulder on the freezer: Keeping frozen fruits and veggies on hand enables you to have a quick, healthy side dish for every meal. Even vegan chefs need a quick bag of frozen green beans or edamame to round out a meal sometimes.
Plan ahead: Use a menu plan and weekly shopping list to make sure you’re ready to prepare a healthy meal or snack at a moments notice. Scrambling for dinner ideas at 5 p.m. will lead to drive-through cravings and old junk-food habits. Head to Chapter 9 for more details on planning meals.
Displaying Kindness and Understanding with Your Nonvegan Friends and Family
You can (and should!) set kind and loving intentions for yourself that your life’s actions will be harmless and bring positive change to the world. These thoughts probably aren’t new to you. After all, if you’re on the path toward vegan living, you’ve clearly begun to see and understand the consequences of your actions. Life is fragile, and eating a plant-based diet makes real your understanding that all life-forms deserve respect.
In this section, I show you the best ways to defend your vegan lifestyle without burning bridges, and I also help you understand why you can’t always force others to see your point of view or take your life’s path.
Defending yourself without hurting others’ feelings
Food is an emotional, cultural, and personal issue for most of us. It evokes memories, acts as the glue at community and family bonding ceremonies, and becomes who we are. You are what you eat, and as a vegan, you have thought about what you eat on a much deeper and more profound level than most of the people around you.
After your decision to become vegan is made, it can bring joy and sorrow to you and the people who love you. You may feel challenged by other’s desires for you to conform to cultural norms. So be prepared to calmly defend yourself to the people you love. Know your facts and read about the benefits of the lifestyle you have chosen. Project loving kindness toward anyone who gently, or crudely, asks “Why are you a vegan?” Chapter 26 provides you with responses to the most common questions